Chapter 3: Production Financing describes in-depth all the various aspects of production financing. It explains the types of financier that tend to provide funding, what type of deal they want in return, how they need to interconnect with each other, and what needs to happen for the film to turn a profit. We cover step-by-step the entire range of film finance currently available, including Soft Money, Equity, Deferments, Pre-Sales, Gap, Sales Advances, Negative Pick-ups, EIS and Venture Capital, Sponsorship and Product Placement. We also illustrate the roles of the various other companies integral to the financing process, including Sales Companies, Distributors, Discounting Banks, and Completion Guarantors.

Chapter 4: The Internet explores how tools, networks and services on the web collectively offer the independent filmmaker great power for financing, marketing and distributing their films, and some of the ideology which underpins these developments. We're pleased to say this chapter was talking about crowd-funding long before Kickstarter and IndieGoGo launched!

Part II, International Incentives, provides information on incentives for 50 countries, in many cases written together with local specialists. We cover all the popular countries in depth, and bring to your attention a number of others with attractive and interesting regimes.

Part III, Funding Directory provides a full breakdown of 1,000 public funds available from over 300 organisations around the globe. Wherever possible, we include details on their criteria, objectives and (most importantly!) the amounts they are willing to provide.

Reference section also provides

400-term glossary of financing and film business jargon

Sample delivery schedule

International co-production treaty table

Recoupment schedule

Table of financing contracts

Further reading

Internaitonal producer organisations

Case studies and interviews

Interviews and case studies with producers, financiers and filmmakers include (in order of appearance):

Jeremy Thomas, Producer, Recorded Picture Company, Dream Machine

Paul Haggis, Writer & director, Crash & Million Dollar Baby

Nik Powell, co-founder Virgin, Palace Pictures, Scala & head of NFTS

Nicole Kassell, writer & director, The Woodsman

Lance Weller, Head Trauma

Wendy Bevan Mogg, short film producer

Jan Dunne and Elaine Wickham, director & producer of Gypo, Ruby Blue

Gus van Sant, director, Elephant

Patty Jenkins, Writer/director, Monster

Amanda Posey, producer, Fever Pitch

Jon Williams, writer/director, Diary of a Bad Lad

Neil Oseman, writer/director, Soul Searcher

Alex Ferrari & Sean Falcon, Broken

Chris Kentis & Laura Lau, Open Water

Adrian Mead, Night People

Alison Peebles, Afterlife

Kenneth D Barker, Kingdom

Gene Cajayou, The Debut

Zack Coffman & Scott Di Lalla, Choppertown, the sinners

Scott Pehl, Curiosity

Susan Buice & Arin Crumley, Four Eyed Monsters

Paul Andrew Williams, London to Brighton

Mira Nair, director, Vanity Fair, Working with a studio

Jacqueline Swanson, Checkout Girl, Product placement

Roy Disney, former Chairman, Walt Disney Corp, the Studio

Janey de Nordwall Silver Films, Business angels

David Thompson, then head of BBC Films

Jim Gilliam, producer, Brave New Films, co-founder Nation Builder

Matt Hanson, producer, Swarm of Angels, co-founder OneDotZero

Ashvin Kumar, the Forrest

How old is it?

This third edition book was first published in 2007 and reprinted with minor updates in 2008. Funding awards and tax regimes change all the time (even in the gap between finishing writing and getting the books back from the printers in 2007). Of the 460 printed pages to the book, over 200 are articles, guides, how-tos, case-studies, resources and interviews that should still be relevent. The other 260 pages are a mixture of info on film funds and legal incentives for different countries. Much fund information will have changed so we would advise - as ever - to check for the latest info before making any plans.